Saakashvili looks up to Tsar David no more

Now the Georgian president is trying to imitate George Washington

This confession was made by Mikheil Saakashvili in his interview with Ellen Barry published on December 30 by "New York Times". He says that lately he is not greatly attracted by David the Builder's governance model. The tsar who was first to unite Georgian principalities in the 12th century and inflicted a series of noticeable military defeats to the Turks, is no more a role model to the president. Now George Washington has become more attractive for Saakashvili who as armtoday.info quotes "could have been a king, but instead chose to give up power, and become a democracy".

In the interview above the president made a short report of his achievements following the example of George Washington.

"For the past five years we have turned Georgia into a modern state, - he stated with pride, - for the coming five years we'll make it a 100% modern society and provide for institutionalization of the country. We have become a country that in a less degree is based on the institutes and is more dependent on personalities. Now we are the society that will rely on supremacy of law and institutions".

However interviewer Ellen Barry did not simply reproduce this statement but tagged it with the following comment:

"Saakashvili's supporters say that it was the only way to wrench a corrupt post-Soviet state into the modern age and the critics assert that he has set up an autocracy". In any case, Ellen Barry notes, among the Georgian opposition there is no figure that could equal him. And the president himself called this fact "very sad" in the interview. He went on in the same vein saying if he had been in the opposition he would have destroyed the current government in three months' time. "I know how to do it but I don't want to teach them how to do it".

The legendary American leader's follower is especially hopeful about the charter on strategic partnership between Georgia and the States that the countries are going to sign one of these days:

"The strategic partnership document between the USA and Georgia is extremely important. We get financial aid from Washington and I hope we'll sign a free-trade agreement. We are establishing closer relations".

Touching upon the August war topic and repeatedly accusing Russia of aggression Saakashvili stated to the American newspaper that the Georgian people were supporting him and compared skeptics about his account of the war with "the same people who thought Poland started the Second World War".

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